Chapter VIII The First Half of 1919

Dealing with Fang Jianxiong, a bastard, Biel still has more experience. Yang Yongtai's diplomatic rhetoric is a fart in his opinion, Germany is now facing not only the problem of defeat, but also the shortage of food and medicine, and the Chinese government says that it will provide humanitarian aid, and what about the ships that carry food and medicine? It's not that I'm worried that words don't count, but the problem is that now Paris is sharing the spoils, and Germany's life and death may not be enough for a while, right?

Biel's method was very simple, silently took out a form and gently put it on the table. Yang Yongtai picked it up with a smile and looked at it, and asked, "This is for me?" ”

Bier's heart is really this tone, and he sighs in his heart more than helpless. The friendship of the year has been diluted in the face of absolute interests, although it has not completely disappeared, but it is far less than the strong brotherhood at the beginning.

"This is the catalog, a total of three major items, twenty small items, involving 185 technical points. It is emphasized that this is the first batch, and if the cooperation is pleasant, there is a second and third batch. Biel is really the right medicine, Yang Yongtai's eyes lit up after scanning the catalog.

"Why don't you have technical information from ZEISS?" Yang Yongtai really came prepared, Biel shrugged his shoulders and said: "I don't have that much energy, if the cooperation between China and Germany is happy, I think maybe it may be ......." ”

"Okay, I see. As a sign of the sincerity of our Government, the first batch of humanitarian aid, 10,000 tons of flour and 1,000 tons of medicines, arrived in Germany a week later and is subject to your Government's inspection. "Yang Yongtai simply gave some benefits first.

No one knows better than Fang Jianxiong how miserable Germany was after the First World War, which was oppressed by the Entente powers. The greedy French, who did not even spare the machines and equipment in the German factories, simply trampled Germany to death and then fastened the pace.

What can the Republic of China, which has only been born for eight years, have? Don't look at the factories that have been built a lot, in fact, there are great limitations. The base is Fang Jianxiong's long-term investment. Heavy industry, which began to work very early, is now a stage where the foundation has been laid. The process of industrialization is destined to be long and arduous, and there are many things to be done in the cultivation of talents and the introduction of technology.

In this era, there is no doubt that Germany is a world-leading power in terms of science and technology. In this era, there is a big gap between Europe and the United States in terms of high-precision technology, not to mention the Republic of China. Through the relationship between Guò Bob and Biel, exchanging aid for technology. Even if you can't change to the most advanced technology, even if it's a little worse technology, it's an extremely valuable opportunity for the Republic of China.

Of course, this is just the beginning, and there is a better opportunity to come.

The three-day preparatory meeting finally came to an end. Over the past three days, the six countries have reached a preliminary agreement on how to divide the spoils. The Chinese government is not very ambitious, and it does not demand excessive compensation or anything. This, the first six of the seven-point demands, was supported by the United States, France, Italy, and Britain and Japan, although not so willingly, but on the issue of China. Unable to win the support of the other three countries, he had to accept it. And privately, both Britain and Japan have contacted the Chinese representatives, and the British and Japanese ministers to China. During this period, he even met with the President of the Chinese Government and the Cabinet of Neutrality, and held urgent consultations on relevant matters.

The Chinese government's efforts to save Germany have failed in the past three days, and the seventh requirement has finally been abandoned.

The Paris Peace Conference was a long process. Don't talk about him in the contest thousands of miles away, return to China.

Shanghai. The steamer full of the last batch of soldiers of the expeditionary force who returned to China docked one after another, and the three commanders-in-chief Cai, Zhang, and Feng, who were standing on the side of the ship, were full of excitement. After going to China for two years, when he returned home, he was full of honor, looking at the crowds on the dock and the solemn greeting battle, it was difficult for anyone to face it calmly.

Standing here on the dock in military uniform is Fang Jianxiong, the only marshal of the Republic of China, behind him is the honor guard and band, 36 salutes are loaded, and the expeditionary force will receive the highest welcome treatment. Behind him were the fathers and brothers of the expeditionary force who had come from all over the motherland, and they had come to welcome their sons and brothers home.

After the first steamer came to a stop with the help of the tugboat, Fang Jianxiong gently raised his right hand.

Boom Boom! The salute was fired, a total of thirty-six shots! Hearing the sound of a gun salute coming from the pier, the battleships escorting the sea responded with a salute, also thirty-six shots. After the gun salute, the military band played the "March of the Wehrmacht".

Hundreds of thousands of people greeted the band, without a conductor, followed the rhythm of the band and sang in unison, "Forward forward, forward, our team to the sun, feet on the motherland ......." ”

More than 100,000 officers and men of the expeditionary force on the ship consciously lined up on the deck and on the side of the ship, stood with their heads held high, and sang the national anthem "March of the Republic" in unison in response to the singing on the pier. "Rise up, China that has been humiliated for a hundred years, build a new Great Wall with our flesh and blood, and the Chinese nation will ...... when it is time to hold its head high."

It should be said that in the choice of national anthem and military anthem, someone is not generally lazy.

Cheers rang through the sky, and when the three generals stepped off the ship first, the dock suddenly became unusually quiet. The three generals stood side by side, standing in front of Marshal Fang Jianxiong, and at the same time raised their hands to salute, and Cai Ye said loudly: "Report to the chairman, the expeditionary force has returned victorious!" ”

At this moment, Fang Jianxiong burst into tears! At this moment, the three generals burst into tears! This time, more than 100,000 officers and soldiers of the expeditionary force burst into tears, and at this moment, hundreds of thousands of fathers and brothers burst into tears!

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While spring had not yet begun, trade between China and Russia was in full swing. From the beginning of December 1918 to the end of January 1919, in two months, the Military Intelligence Agency sold a total of 20 tons of gold worth of arms and munitions to Soviet Russia. On the demand side, food, medicine, clothing, and cloth are mainly needed, and the fist products in the arms sector are infantry guns, Makqin heavy machine guns, and a small number of 122 howitzers.

The Belarusian side was much more generous, purchasing 50 tons of gold worth of arms and munitions, 155 howitzers, 105 howitzers, Maxim machine guns, infantry guns, rifles, and a large number of bullets and shells. Of course, the Chinese side has been very uncooperative and refuses to take credit. On the demand side, the Belarusian government mainly purchases flour and canned food, and now Russia is a bit of a food shortage, and the opposing sides have been frantically trying to get more grain from ordinary people in the past winter.

This winter, the most changed in the Far East were Irkutsk and Chita, where the squadron mobilized 200,000 prisoners of war and Russian civilians to build strong fortresses. It was not until the weather was freezing that the construction work was suspended.

Spring in Russia came very late, and before spring could be revealed, the White Russian army launched a fierce spring offensive staring at the spring wind and snow. With the strong support of the Entente, the White Russian army can be said to be extremely strong for a while. In particular, Kolchak's troops purchased equipment from China for ten heavy artillery regiments, although they were old-fashioned artillery, but they were quite effective against the Soviet and Russian troops.

Kolchak united with the generals of the White Army to attack the Red Army regime in Moscow, of which Kolchak sent 150,000 elite main forces of the Siberian Legion, plus about 30,000 to 50,000 Czech legions under his orders (the Czech Legion was a Czech unit formed during World War I for the independence of the Czech Republic from Austria-Hungary and joined the Russian army to fight against the German and Austrian forces in Russia). After the end of World War I, they were unable to return to the Czech Republic from war-torn Siberia and had to declare their membership in the White Army. The corps was commanded by General Genan of France sent by the Entente). Kolchak was definitely the most dangerous enemy of the Red Army in Soviet Russia, and its troops, with nationalism, constitutional democratic government and religion as the three banners, were supported by the domestic bourgeoisie and religious forces, and were very powerful.

The White Army, well-equipped and supported by foreign countries, once penetrated 200 kilometers from Moscow, and at one time the Kolchak division invaded the Volga valley and occupied the important town of Tsaritsyn, which threatened Moscow's security. During the spring offensive of Belarus, the main forces of the Red Army on the Eastern Front were defeated by Kolchak's troops, suffered heavy losses and completely lost their combat effectiveness.

But Kolchak is a soldier, and his political ability is limited, plus **, internal strife continues. Its army and local power are fierce and cruel, greedy and cruel, and have not won the support of the vast number of Siberian Russian people, and have become the end of the crossbow.

Lenin, analysing the situation of the war, decided to first crush the most powerful Kolchak troops, and in the summer of 1919 he issued a manifesto to the whole nation on a general mobilization. Lenin brought the Paris Peace Conference to a close before the Red Army launched a summer counterattack by the Russian Red Army, led by the famous Red Army general Frunze, who had urgently recruited hundreds of thousands of Red Army troops to join the Eastern Front.

On April 29, 1919, a German delegation led by German Foreign Minister Ulrich von Bruckdorf-Lanzu arrived at the Palace of Versailles. On 7 May, the German delegation accepted the conditions put forward by the victorious powers, including the division of part of German territory to neighboring countries, the division of German overseas colonies by the victorious powers, and the limitation of Germany's ability to wage war again. However, because Germany was excluded from the negotiations, the German government considered the above conditions unfair and protested, and immediately withdrew from the peace conference.

On 20 June, a new German government was formed with Gustav Bauer as chancellor, and on 23 June, the German parliament voted 237 to 138 to win the vote in favor of accepting the treaty, and on 28 June, the new German Foreign Minister Hermann Müller signed the peace treaty.

The Treaty of Versailles will not go into details, but throughout the peace conference, the Chinese government announced that it had made great efforts, but it did not change any results.

It is gratifying to note that six of the seven demands put forward by the Chinese government have been fully met. However, on the issue of concessions, during the Paris Peace Conference, there were some disputes. In the end, the Chinese government made some concessions and proposed that all the former concessions be converted into free trade zones. In other words, within the traditional concessions of various countries and public concessions, they are designated as free trade zones, and the Chinese government does not levy taxes in the free trade zones. But once you leave the area, you still have to pay taxes.